(NewsUSA) - Sponsored News - If you keep up with the news at all, you know that hacking computer networks of companies -- both large and small -- means big business. Like any other commodity, personal data and information can be priceless.

According to Zdnet, a website that provides 24/7 news coverage of tech trends, 2014 alone saw more than 1 billion personal records illegally accessed -- including health, financial, email and home address data, and other personal information like Social Security numbers. That's up more than 54 percent from the year prior, according to industry experts -- and there's no sign that those numbers will be slowing down any time soon.

Case in point, just this year, more than 191 million U.S. voters' information was compromised from an incorrect configuration in the voter database. Still not convinced? Anthem, one of the world's largest health insurers, was hacked this year, and 80 million U.S. citizens had all of their personal information leaked.

"It's not just corporate data ? it's not just cyberterrorism; everyone is fair game," Drew Del Matto, chief financial officer of Fortinet, told Investor's Business Daily in an interview last year.

The point is, hacking has become the norm, and simply clearing the drive by traditional methods -- deleting files or even formatting the drive -- isn't enough; these files can be easily recovered by anyone skilled enough.

Enter Data Killers, a Maryland-based company that, through its recent merger with Capitol Asset Recovery, now has decades of experience recycling and refurbishing IT equipment as well as hard drive destruction. That means any residual proprietary information left on outdated equipment is permanently deleted.

While some would argue that destroying hard drives on a regular or even on an occasional basis isn't cost effective for a company, experts would counter that using a company like Data Killers and the solutions it provides is minimal compared to unintentionally leaking customer and employee data and financial information.

"We provide tangible data security solutions to some of the largest financial institutions and most secretive federal agencies in the world," said Zack Boorstein, vice president of Data Killers.